Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or in a cocoon-like 'pod' suspended below a fabric wing. Wing shape is maintained by the suspension lines, the pressure of air entering vents in the front of the wing, and the aerodynamic forces of the air flowing over the outside.
Despite not using an engine, paraglider flights can last many hours and cover many hundreds of kilometres, though flights of one to five hours and covering some tens of kilometres are more the norm. By skillful exploitation of sources of lift, the pilot may gain height, often climbing to altitudes of a few thousand metres.
History
In 1966, Canadian Domina Jalbert was granted a patent for a multi-cell wing type aerial device—"a wing having a flexible canopy constituting an upper skin and with a plurality of longitudinally extending ribs forming in effect a wing corresponding to an airplane wing airfoil... More particularly the invention contemplates the provision of a wing of rectangular or other shape having a canopy or top skin and a lower spaced apart bottom skin", a governable gliding parachute with multi-cells and controls for glide.File:MG - Pico da Ibituruna - Governador Valadares.jpg|thumb|left|Governador Valadares, Brazil is known internationally for the World Paragliding Championships that has been held at Ibituruna Peak
In 1954, Walter Neumark predicted a time when a glider pilot would be "able to launch himself by running over the edge of a cliff or down a slope... whether on a rock-climbing holiday in Skye or skiing in the Alps."
In 1961, the French engineer Pierre Lemongine produced improved parachute designs that led to the Para-Commander. The Para-Commander had cutouts at the rear and sides that enabled it to be towed into the air and steered, leading to parasailing/parascending.
Domina Jalbert invented the parafoil, which had sectioned cells in an aerofoil shape, an open leading edge, a closed trailing edge, and was inflated by passage through the airthe design. He filed US Patent 3131894 on January 10, 1963.
File:PARAGLIDING2019.jpg|thumb|right|Paragliding with instructor at approximately 3,000m over Lake Sils, St.Moritz
About that time, David Barish was developing the sail wing for recovery of NASA space capsules—"slope soaring was a way of testing out... the Sail Wing." After tests on Hunter Mountain, New York, in September 1965, he went on to promote slope soaring as a summer activity for ski resorts.
Author Walter Neumark wrote Operating Procedures for Ascending Parachutes, and in 1973 he and a group of enthusiasts with a passion for tow-launching PCs and ram-air parachutes broke away from the British Parachute Association to form the British Association of Parascending Clubs. In 1997, Neumark was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club of the UK. Authors Patrick Gilligan and Bertrand Dubuis wrote the first flight manual, The Paragliding Manual in 1985, coining the word paragliding.
These developments were combined in June 1978 by three friends, Jean-Claude Bétemps, André Bohn and Gérard Bosson, from Mieussy, Haute-Savoie, France. After inspiration from an article on slope soaring in the Parachute Manual magazine by parachutist and publisher Dan Poynter, they calculated that on a suitable slope, a "square" ram-air parachute could be inflated by running down the slope; Bétemps launched from Pointe du Pertuiset, Mieussy, and flew 100 m. Bohn followed him and glided down to the football pitch in the valley 1000 metres below. Parapente was born.
From the 1980s, equipment has continued to improve, and the number of paragliding pilots and established sites has continued to increase. The first Paragliding World Championship was held in Verbier, Switzerland, in 1987, though the first officially sanctioned FAI World Paragliding Championship was held in Kössen, Austria, in 1989.
Europe has seen the greatest growth in paragliding, with France alone registering in 2011 over 25,000 active pilots.
Starting in 2022, feasibility studies of paragliding from above 8000meters have been in progress in the Everest region of Nepal this would effectively be paragliding from the highest starting altitude on the planet.
Equipment
Wing
The paraglider wing or canopy is usually what is known in engineering as a ram-air airfoil. Such wings comprise two layers of fabric that are connected to internal supporting material in such a way as to form a row of cells. By leaving most of the cells open only at the leading edge, incoming air keeps the wing inflated, thus maintaining its shape. When inflated, the wing's cross-section has the typical teardrop aerofoil shape. Modern paraglider wings are made of high-performance non-porous materials such as ripstop nylon.In most modern paragliders, some of the cells of the leading edge are closed to form a cleaner aerodynamic profile. Holes in the internal ribs allow a free flow of air from the open cells to these closed cells to inflate them, and also to the wingtips, which are also closed. Almost all modern paragliders follow a sharknose design of the leading edge, by which the inflation opening is not at the front of the wing, but slightly backwards on the underside of the wing, and following a concave shape. This design, resembling the nose of a shark, increases wing stability and stall resistance. In modern paragliders, semi-flexible rods made out of plastic or nitinol are used to give extra stability to the profile of the wing. In high-performance paragliders, these rods extend through most of the length of the upper wing.
The pilot is supported underneath the wing by a network of suspension lines. These start with two sets of risers made of short lengths of strong webbing. Each set is attached to the harness by a carabiner, one on each side of the pilot, and each riser of a set is generally attached to lines from only one row of its side of wing. At the end of each riser of the set, there is a small delta maillon with a number of lines attached, forming a fan. These are typically long, with the end attached to 2–4 further lines of around m, which are again joined to a group of smaller, thinner lines. In some cases this is repeated for a fourth cascade.
The top of each line is attached to small fabric loops sewn into the structure of the wing, which are generally arranged in rows running span-wise. The row of lines nearest the front are known as the A lines, the next row back the B lines, and so on. A typical wing will have A, B, C and D lines, but recently, there has been a tendency to reduce the rows of lines to three, or even two, to reduce drag.
Paraglider lines are usually made from UHMW polythene or aramid. Although they look rather slender, these materials are strong and subject to load testing requirements. For example, a single 0.66 mm-diameter line can have a breaking strength of.
Paraglider wings typically have an area of with a span of and weigh. Combined weight of wing, harness, reserve, instruments, helmet, etc. is around. Ultralight Hike & Fly kits can be lighter than.
The glide ratio of paragliders ranges from 9.3 for recreational wings to about 11.3 for modern competition models, reaching in some cases up to 13. For comparison, a typical skydiving parachute will achieve about 3:1 glide. A hang glider ranges from 9.5 for recreational wings to about 16.5 for modern competition models. An idling Cessna 152 light aircraft will achieve 9:1. Some sailplanes can achieve a glide ratio of up to 72:1.
The speed range of paragliders is typically, from stall speed to maximum speed. Achieving maximum speed requires the use of speedbar, or trimmers. Without these, and without applying brakes, a paraglider is at its trim speed, which is typically and often at the best glide ratio, too. High-performance paragliders meant for competitions may achieve faster accelerated flight, as do speedwings, due to their small size and different profile.
For storage and carrying, the wing is usually folded into a stuffsack, which can then be stowed in a large backpack along with the harness. Some modern harnesses include the ability to turn the harness inside out such that it becomes a backpack, saving weight and space.
Paragliders are unique among human-carrying aircraft in being easily portable. The complete equipment packs into a rucksack and can be carried easily on the pilot's back, in a car, or on public transport. In comparison with other air sports, this substantially simplifies travel to a suitable takeoff spot, the selection of a landing place and return travel.
Tandem paragliders, designed to carry the pilot and one passenger, are larger but otherwise similar. They usually fly faster with higher trim speeds, are more resistant to collapse, and have a slightly higher sink rate compared to solo paragliders.
Harness
The pilot is loosely and comfortably buckled into a harness, which offers support in both the standing and sitting positions. Most harnesses have protectors made out of foam or other materials underneath the seat and behind the back to reduce the impact on failed launches or landings. Modern harnesses are designed to be as comfortable as a lounge chair in the sitting or reclining position. Many harnesses even have an adjustable lumbar support. A reserve parachute is also typically connected to a paragliding harness.Harnesses also vary according to the need of the pilot, and thereby come in a range of designs, mostly:
- open harnesses, ranging from training harness for beginners to all-round harnesses
- pod harnesses for long-distance cross-country flights
- competition harnesses, which are pod harnesses with the capacity to carry two reserve parachutes
- acro harnesses, a type of open harness, designed for acrobatic paragliding, with the capacity for two or three reserve parachutes
- hike&fly harnesses, which are designed to be lightweight and compact when folded away for hiking
- harnesses for tandem pilots and passengers
- kids tandem harnesses are also now available with special child-proof locks